


Out of Sequence

by nightfalltwen



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-02-10
Updated: 2012-02-10
Packaged: 2017-10-30 21:24:02
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,069
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/336317
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nightfalltwen/pseuds/nightfalltwen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Percy returns to England only to find a surprise waiting for him five years in the making.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Out of Sequence

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the 2010 **smutty_claus** fic exchange. Semi-EWE but not entirely.

_Mid-December 2003_

"Uncle Percy!"

A whirlwind of strawberry blonde came dashing down the front path from Shell Cottage. Her hat flew off somewhere between the front door and the front step. It was a useless accessory considering her age and her excitement. Percy, who had made his eldest brother's house the first stop on his journey home for the holidays, scooped up the little girl before she could tackle him, spinning her up in the air. The little girl sat primly on his hip as the pair of them moved back up toward the ever expanding house. Bill had added another floor, which was all well and good as it looked like Fleur was about to have her second child any day now. His sister-in-law stood with the door open, hands placed against her back as she waited for them.

"You growed whiskers, Uncle Percy," Victoire said, scratching his face like one would scratch the back end of a cat.

"It's terribly cold in Russia, Vicky," Percy explained. "You wouldn't like it if I froze my chin off, would you?"

She shook her head vigorously and hugged him tightly around his neck. He'd not been in the country much over the last few years, mostly because he was sent on assignment with his department of the Ministry, but partly because being home was painful. Seeing his family only served to remind him of what they were missing and the memory of Fred still felt like this gaping open wound on his heart. Luckily there was Victoire. Bill's oldest was every bit her mother and father combined. Her childish smile always melted the ice chips in Percy's heart whenever he saw her. He liked Victoire. She was as imperious as he'd been.

And perhaps still was.

" _Bonjour_ , Fleur," Percy said warmly, stepping up to greet his sister-in-law with a kiss to each of her cheeks, which she returned in kind.

" _Bonjour_ , Percy," Fleur stepped out of the door so he could come inside then gave her daughter, who was still scratching Percy's cheek with a small hand, a stern sort of look. "Victoire, you forgot your 'at."

"She wasn't outside that long, Fleur," came a voice from the direction of the kitchen.

Percy let out a laugh as he set little Victoire down on the floor. His eldest brother stood in the doorway to the kitchen with a large wooden spoon in hand and a rather enormous frilly apron tied around his waist. Bill gave him an arch look and held up the spoon defiantly, daring Percy to say one thing about how he was dressed. Percy said nothing, merely held up his hands in surrender. Bill was giving him the comfort of his sofa for the night instead of him having to go straight to the Burrow, after all. Percy always had a hard time dealing with his mother and this was the best alternative.

"Pasta's almost ready," Bill said, thumbing behind him.

Percy didn't have time to answer, nor did he have time to stay and listen to the brief conversation in low tones between husband and wife - more than likely about parenting. Victoire had already seized his hand and was pulling him toward her bedroom, which was an explosion of pinks and mauves. She chattered on about her dollies. Some of it was in English, but most of it in French. Percy smiled, wondering if she even realised what she was doing. Probably not. But he let her pour the pretend tea and put a hat on his head. Of all the people in his extended family, she was the one who could get away with just about anything.

*^*^*

"How long is the stay this time?" Bill asked, holding out a pint.

Fleur had put Victoire to bed and then excused herself to do the same shortly after with a kiss on Bill's cheek. Percy had watched the two interact all evening, slightly jealous with their happiness, but never begrudging them because they had it. Now the fire crackled merrily in the fireplace and Bill and he were sharing a drink. He held the cold glass in his hands and leaned back into the sofa cushions until he felt something strange poking into his back. Squirming a bit, he reached behind himself and pulled a small toy broom out the murky depths of the sofa. He placed it on the floor where it hovered for a moment before settling down on the rug. All of that was a bit of a show in order to avoid the question that his brother had just asked.

"Mum has her heart set on you settling down this trip. Maybe even staying for consecutive months," Bill continued. "You can't avoid all of us forever. Especially with all the impending family events. It isn't fair to them."

Percy sighed. He'd been jumping at every abroad opportunity since returning to work for the Ministry. International Magical Cooperation had become one of the new regime's top focuses and although Percy had been familiar with the department, it had changed drastically since his time under Barty Crouch's thumb. Now it was all about creating treaties and pacts with foreign powers. 

Aligning themselves with other nations to create a world-wide detection network for dark powers was the priority. No one wanted to see another Dark Lord rise to power. England had fought it practically alone, and now they were trying to make sure it would never be the case again. So this meant that Percy went out of the country for weeks and months at a time. He'd missed two Christmases and a few Easters. He'd come back for the birth of Bill's daughter, but had only stayed a few weeks before leaving again.

It was too painful being home.

It was too hard to see that headstone in the family cemetery.

"I suppose it'll depend," Percy said finally, taking a long drink before finally looking at Bill.

Out of all the family members, Bill was always the one that seemed to _get_ him. Percy felt that he owed his brother the truth because of it. Perhaps it was that the eldest of the Weasley boys respected his younger brother as an individual. Perhaps it was due to him being the eldest and wanting to protect his younger siblings. Perhaps it was a lot of different things that Percy couldn't quite put his finger on. In any case, he'd never held anything against Bill. And Bill had easily let things like his little brother's behaviour during the war run under them like water and bridges and sticks that race from one side to the other.

Percy sighed.

"It's hard, Bill," he admitted after a long moment. "I want to stay. I want to settle down, but there's so much that still needs to be done and if I stick around too long... you know how Mum is. She'll be parading daughters of friends under my nose, never resting until I'm married with five grandchildren for her to dandle on her knee."

"You don't have to keep trying to make up for those years, Percy. I wish you'd realise that. It would make Mum and Dad happier to have you close."

That was just like Bill. He'd always been too damn astute for his own good and Percy disliked being analysed like that. Percy frowned at his drink and turned it about in his hands. He didn't buy that the family easily forgave the kind of person he'd been after just one battle and there was always that niggling thought that perhaps they wished that it hadn't been Fred to die, but him. It was a stupid thought and he had no real basis for the theory, but it was this gut feeling thing that he couldn't shake. Sometimes it was the way a sentence paused when he walked into the room or sometimes it was the flash of sorrow in one of his siblings’ eyes. It was something.

So Percy stayed aligned with the family, but there still this feeling of disconnect.

His thoughts churned around for a while before he realised that Bill had gotten up from his seat and walked over to a roll-top desk that was wedged into the corner of the sitting room, two plush fwoopers wedged between the seat of the chair and the front drawer. One pink and one mauve - Obviously not something of his brother's. Over the lip of his drink, Percy watched Bill push up the roll top and dig around in some papers before returning to his chair.

"Well... _while_ you're home..." He held out a folded piece of paper to Percy. "A few weeks back we had a transfer in from Gringott's North. Katie Bell. She was a year above Ron and said she knew you. When I mentioned you were coming back for the holidays, she asked if I'd pass this along. Seemed quite interested on your return. I told her I'd tell you to drop by for a visit."

Percy's glass had paused midway between his knee and his lips. He swallowed and a number of memories seemed to jockey for position in the forefront of his mind. He leaned over and took the paper, unfolding it with a flick of his thumb. It was an address in London. He swallowed and felt a flush rise up his neck as his brother watched him.

In an attempt to mask the surprise, Percy took a large drink out of his glass, slopping some of the beer onto his shirt.

Drat.

Bill's eyebrows raised.

"It's nothing. I mean... she's a friend." Percy crumpled the address and shoved it roughly into the pocket of his trousers not wanting to further explain himself. Sharing private events and thoughts was difficult for him. Even with someone he was close to like Bill. "Thanks."

*^*^*

_May 1998_

The table was full of food. 

Not just full, but literally sagging in the middle because of the amount of food that was strewn upon it. Dishes and dishes of casseroles, tarts, soups, stews. It was all there and he could hear the joints near the legs groan in protest when someone walked over the floorboards nearby. Every new person brought another dish to add to the table. There was so much food. Percy's first thought when he saw it was where were they going to put all this food? The Weasleys didn't have an expanding fridge and now they were less one person to eat all of this. 

The table was so full of food.

And the sitting room was so full of people. Had Fred really known this many of their neighbours? These couldn't all be neighbours. Some of them Percy barely knew. How had all these strangers known when his brother’s burial was to be?

Percy stood in the kitchen, glancing with what could only be described as a panicked look, toward the table. Full of food.

In the other room the sorrow was thick as fog. The whole family was there, and all the strangers too. George kept looking around with a hollow, lost expression and every so often his gaze would settle uncomfortably on Percy before it shifted away and focused on something else. A knot in the floor. A plate in front of him. The gnarled hand of Auntie Muriel clasped around his tightly. Percy could feel what they were thinking in that other room.

Like arrows being shot at him from all sides.

So he went upstairs.

Perhaps he fled.

He was sitting on a bed made up with simple sheets, clutching a pillow to his chest to somehow alleviate the painful pinch below his ribs. He didn't even hear the knock on the door when it happened and it wasn't until the mattress sagged on one side that he even realised someone had come into the room, let alone was talking to him. Pinching his eyes shut for a moment, Percy pushed up his glasses and rubbed at the bridge of his nose. He let out a ragged breath that he'd been holding and turned his gaze toward the person next to him.

Katie Bell had been three years below him at Hogwarts, in her fourth year when he'd finished. He'd known who she was. Everyone did. The Quidditch team put the players names on everyone's lips even if they'd never formally interacted. He'd maybe even fancied her a little over the years, but because he was an upstanding prefect and followed the rules and was a gentleman, had never said anything for some stupid reason. His image perhaps. Or maybe because she'd been friends with his brothers. Friends with Fred. With George. Harry and Ron too. She'd never been friends with him. Oh there was certainly enough passing acquaintance to pull off a mild conversation, but she didn't _know_ him.

Seemed like none of that mattered at the moment. It made it easier to talk to her in some way.

"They wish it had been me," he said dully.

"I don't think they do," she replied.

Percy looked down at his folded hands and shook his head. "I was so blind for so long. One decision to come back can't erase all of that. If they'd been given a choice... They would have chose Fred."

"That's a stupid thing to say, Percy. And Fred would tell you just that," Katie said, her hands coming to rest on top of his. "No family would choose one person over another to lose."

Something broke inside of Percy. It caught him off guard because he'd grown so good, over the last week or so, at poking his fingers into all the cracks in his hard shell. Now he'd run out of fingers and the wall was crumbling. He hadn't even seen it coming until he saw wet splashes hitting her small hands on top of his. His glasses fogged and he didn't seem to be able to do anything about it but curl over and around that howl of pain that seemed to force its way up through his throat and out between his lips. Vaguely he felt her rubbing his back.

"I saw him," Percy's voice came out as a mixture between a croak and a sob. "Rookwood. I _saw_ him. Before... Then there was rocks exploding because I was busy with Thicknesse and then he was dead. Fred was on the ground... I could have stopped it."

He was clutching at her like she was some sort of lifeline, his arms flung tightly around her middle at some point and he'd not even noticed the shift in his position until it had already changed. He’d just known that she was there and he was hanging onto her with this horrible, awful, gutted sound coming from his chest. It was the first time he'd broken in front of someone. He'd not cried as they'd lowered the casket into the ground. He'd stood away from the family when they'd gathered around the body. One moment Fred had been there. The next, he was gone.

It was so hard.

So hard.

It took a while for Percy to come back to himself and he was only vaguely aware of where her hands were and how she was hunched over him, her face against his hair. He could hear Katie whispering things as she swept her hand up and down his back. Telling him it would be alright. That the pain would subside. That she knew that he didn't want to hear this right now, but things were going to be alright at some point. When Percy lifted his head to look at her, he saw the tears on her cheeks and a faraway look in her eyes.

She kissed his forehead.

"All of what I just said... That's what everyone's going to tell you. The truth of the matter is that it bloody well sucks. It's crap. It hurts. No one knows what you're going through even if they try to empathise. Some days will be better than others... He's gone and it's a horrible, stupid, awful thing." She gently combed her fingers through his hair and gave him a look that made him feel like their ages were reversed, that he was the one who had only just passed the cusp into adulthood and she was the one who was years ahead. Maybe she was. Girls tended to mature faster, didn't they?

Her face was so close to his.

"Ka -- Ms Bell, I..." Percy swallowed.

"We were in the same house for four years, Percy. I think it's alright if you call me Katie." 

They didn't speak much, Percy and Katie. He sat up and tried to straighten his shirt, pulling awkwardly on the cuffs until she stilled his hands. Downstairs the din of visitors increased and decreased in volume constantly like the ebb and flow of a tide. He was glad not to be a part of it. Sitting there quietly with Katie was more than enough to get him through every tick of the clock. The rise and fall of her chest, which he could see out of the corner of his eye, and the steady squeeze of his hand. Everything she did was the right thing and slowly Percy felt knots of tension untie themselves from his stomach.

When she moved to stand, he held onto her.

"Don't go," he said, almost a little scared to look at her. Katie nodded, but instead of sitting beside him again, she moved so that she was sitting upon his lap, her head against his shoulder.

Percy inhaled and caught whiffs of something floral in her brown hair.

Hours could have passed, but it was probably only minutes. He didn't know. The day had been one of those ones where time seemed to have its own rules. A minute was an hour or an hour was a minute. It didn't matter what the time was. Only that it was ticking away and he was looking at the round curve of his shoulder. He wanted to ask her why she was doing this. Why she was sitting there with him. Why she was touching the side of his neck with her hand. Why she even cared. But he didn't ask those things. Those things just didn't seem to be important.

Kissing her was.

It started slowly at first. Just a brush of his lips against her temple. Her hair tickled his nose and he could feel her look up without lifting her head. He didn't move from the kiss. Just kept his lips against the soft skin for a long moment, breathing deeply. And it would have been fine. It would have been a simple and innocent kiss. One that could have turned into a date or two. A kiss that could have branched out into a long and faithful relationship. A kiss that could have brought them together as a couple and then eventually not have been strong enough to keep them together. Soft kisses were how it started with Penny, but that had never lasted.

It could have been all of that though. It could have been.

But, being that they were both Gryffindors, it wasn't.

Katie turned her face toward him and her lips touched his, soft and sweet. Her hand curled up in the front of his shirt and she pulled him a bit closer, applying more pressure. He wasn't going to question the whys of all of this. Whys would only complicate matters and he just wanted to lose himself in the simplicity of her lips moving over his like a wet cloth over a chalkboard. They rendered him completely blank to everything. The sounds below the floorboards, the clank of the ghoul somewhere up above. It was just lips against lips and the entire universe took a backseat to everything except that.

It was wrong. Snogging a girl while his family was downstairs mourning? It was so, so, _so_ wrong.

She made a soft little sound against his mouth and Percy found that he didn't quite care.

Just as his arms came about her, his hand moving up to fist in her hair, Katie gave him a bit of a push and broke the kiss off. A million different ways to say 'I'm sorry' bubbled up into Percy's throat getting caught in the clamour to be the first thing spoken. She placed her fingers against his lips and held them there, giving him a look that he couldn't quite define. Then she reached up and removed his specs, carefully placing them on the bedside table.

Percy gave them a look and then slowly shifted his gaze to her.

"They would have fallen off," she said with a shrug.

He didn't answer her. Instead he tugged her back toward him, lips crashing against hers and his nose bumping her cheek. Everything that had pent up inside him since the battle that hadn't been released just moments before was being put into this kiss. Their teeth clacked slightly and it was beautifully messy and horribly disorganised. This wasn't prim or proper. This was raw and full of need. Percy hadn't ever kissed anyone like this before and Katie seemed to match him move for move, the tip of her tongue sliding over his lip and her fingers burying themselves in his hair.

All he wanted to do was drown every horrible thought, every horrible image, every horrible _thing_ that he'd seen over the past year and a half with something joyous.

Part of him wanted to ask permission. Percy was the gentleman and he'd never want to force a lady to do something that she wasn't yet ready to do. But asking would require not kissing her and not kissing her would let all those outside things back in. So he asked by tugging at her blouse. Just a little. And when she didn't protest, he tugged more. It kept going like that until he absolutely had to drag his mouth from hers to get the fabric up over her head, but it only lasted a moment before his lips had found hers again.

It continued like that until she was wearing nothing but her bra and knickers and was laying back upon the small bed with him beside her in a similar state of undress.

He wished he'd managed to get that other sock off.

"Don't think," she said, touching his face and finding his hand. She guided it down instead of up, away from her breasts and toward her knickers, her fingers weaving with his to lead them down under the elastic waistband and through the curls. "Thinking makes it complicated. Just... Feel."

She let him find his own way after that, drawing her hand away and reaching behind her at what he thought was an expert angle to unhook the bra. Percy didn't notice the fact that she'd gotten rid of the fabric covering her breasts because his fingers and his attention was completely and wholly dedicated to the slick flesh between her legs. He ran his index finger along her quivering body, dipping just barely into her before sliding back up to the little nub he knew would cause the most reaction. His fingertip traced a slow circle around it, first one way then the other and then stopped. Percy glanced up at her.

Katie's body was a flush of pink even in the dim light of the bedroom, her breath coming in short, soft gasps.

He lowered his mouth to her breast and ran the tip of his tongue around the straining nipple before giving it a gentle nip with his teeth. Katie whimpered.

While he wasn't the most savvy man when it came to sex, Percy hadn't missed the boat or anything. It wasn't like he had never had sex, just hadn't had it very many times. He was completely aware of the things that could be done and what women enjoyed. Reading helped. The few women he'd been with since leaving school had helped more. Orderly and rule following he might be, but Percy had always been a guy and he wasn't entirely inept.

In one swift movement, he tugged down her knickers and watched at the careful undulations her hips made to shimmy out of them the rest of the way, kicking them with her foot. Percy suddenly found it very hard to think and his head seemed to swim as all the blood in his body raced away from anything that it felt it didn't need and right to his groin. Katie leaned up and kissed him softly, catching his slack lips with her own.

"It's just you, me and nothing else," she said, her voice thick. 

Percy nodded and swallowed, his brain having a very hard time forming words.

Instinct was an entirely different beast.

He kissed the dip in her throat and then down between her breasts and then all the way down to her stomach. His lips moved over a shiny patch of skin from a recently healed scar. One of the battle wounds that everyone had these days. The tip of his tongue traced the length of it, mapping the edge as it curved up over her abdomen toward her ribs and then back down the returning edge. Then nudging her thighs apart, he settled lower. Katie's voice grew louder and then quieter as if muffled. One glance up and he saw that she was biting a pillow, her face scrunched slightly. It made him smile and his fingertips, then lips and then tongue, danced over her, into her, circling and making her squirm and cry out.

Kissing his way back up her body, Percy settled between her legs, shifting out of his shorts as fast as he could manage.

Then he slid into her, pulling her close and around him and forgetting that there was a world outside of this particular moment in time. She was warm and wet and, for that moment, completely his and there was nothing else he had to focus on but the way her body pulsed around him.

Meeting her eyes, Percy swept a bit of hair off of her face and tucked it behind her ear. Now wasn't the time for conversation, but he truly did want to know why and how this had managed to happen for him. For them. But it wasn't the time to ask. Don't think. Just feel. And that's precisely what he did, moving within her and rolling his hips. She matched his movements with ones of her own and the whole act seemed uncharacteristically chaotic for him. Normally he didn't care much for chaos, but this was beautiful. She was beautiful. It was carnal and wonderful and she took away nearly all of his hurts. He wanted it to last forever.

Even when they were both coming and holding back their cries so no one downstairs would decide to investigate, he wanted it to last forever. Even when he was spilling inside of her, he wanted it to last forever. Even when he'd collapsed against her and then rolled to the side, kissing her damp skin as he went, Percy wanted it to go on forever. The real world was hard and sharp and cold and sad and awful. This wasn't. 

This was perfect.

*^*^*

_Mid-December, 2003_

Percy stood on the front step of the building looking up, the crumpled piece of paper in his hand. There had been only two owls exchanged between them after his quick stay at Bill's. One of him asking if it would be alright to visit and her sending back a date and time. The sky above was an abysmal grey and fat, very wet flakes of snow fell, but didn't stick. It made him shuffle the neck of his winter coat up a bit more and tighten his scarf. He pressed a button next to the door and waited. This would have been easier if he could have traveled via the Floo network, but her flat didn't have a fireplace and apparating into someone's living room was just rude. So Percy did this the old fashioned way.

The door swung open and there she stood. Her hair was longer than he remembered, but still the same shade of dark brown. She offered him a quiet smile and held the door for him. "I'm glad you came by," she said, her tone sounding odd and gestured up the stairs. "It's the upper."

Percy nodded and rubbed at his chin. He'd tried to trim the beard that he'd grown in Russia into something more sophisticated, but only managed to look ridiculous. So he'd shaven it all off that morning and the cold air had stung his sensitive skin. "I'll admit I was surprised to get your note." Percy unbuttoned his pea coat. "The last time I saw you was..."

"Fred's memorial. I know." Katie unlocked the door to her flat and stepped inside, closing the door once he'd entered. "Though I did manage to spot you a couple of times when you were back in England, but by the time I managed to get a speck of time to come by and see you, you'd already left again on another assignment."

She took his coat. There was something odd about this meeting. Something Percy couldn't quite put his finger on. Katie looked nervous. Of all the times he'd seen her in school, she'd never come across as nervous. She'd always had this determined look on her face. Like she was going to attack the Quaffle and win the game by herself. He'd always admired Oliver's ability to realise the potential in his players. Now? Now she kept shifting from one foot to the next, looking like she was about to tell him something before deciding to keep it to herself.

It was a little frustrating.

"Tea?" she asked, typically British. There wasn't anything that couldn't be solved by a nice cup of tea. Percy nodded and watched her turn abruptly, heading toward the kitchen.

Her kitchen was small, but not filled with anything remotely magical. At least as far as Percy could tell. He'd not spent a great deal of time in a Muggle kitchen and wouldn't know for certain. Only that she was putting a pronged thing connected to a kettle into the wall, tossing a few bags of tea into a large blue and white teapot. She stretched up to get some teacups out of the cupboard and her shirt rode up a bit, exposing a little line of flesh and Percy could see that scar she still had on her. His face flushed at the memory of what he'd done the last time he'd seen it. To hide his blush, Percy turned to the fridge. Stuck to the door was various coloured drawings. Stick figures and animals. Squiggles and things that didn't even look like anything. He took a few steps closer to have a look.

"Who's the artist?" he asked, thinking it would be better to have some conversation instead of the pair of them standing there to watch the water boil.

"Those are Eleanor's," Katie said, turning slightly, spots of pink on her cheeks. "I go through more paper and crayons with her in a week than an entire primary school goes through in a year, I'm sure."

"Niece?"

Katie swallowed, held his gaze for a moment before looking away to the teapot and the kettle that hadn't quite boiled. "Daughter."

The bottom seemed to drop out of Percy's stomach and he looked at Katie for a long moment, his throat dry. The next question came out a little more high pitched than he would have liked and for some reason he thought perhaps he might know the answer. "How old?" he squeaked, taking a step back and trying to force himself not to look for the nearest escape. 

"She'll be five in February."

Everything was going all wrong at once. Percy was quick with numbers and knew what almost five meant and what February meant in relation to almost five. This was supposed to be a friendly visit. This was not supposed to be something enormous and life altering. Five years... _Five_ years. Not an owl. Not a note? Before he realised what was happening, he'd fallen back against the wall and slid down to sit on the floor. He couldn't catch his breath. There wasn't enough air in the room. Why wasn't there enough air in the room?

Katie was crouching in front of him, holding out a paper sack.

Percy took it gratefully and started to breathe in and out, inflating and deflating the sack as he stared at her.

"Five years," he said, his voice muffled by crinkling bag sounds. He glanced around, seeing the toys on the floor.

"You left for South Africa when I found out..." Katie bit her lip and sat against the wall opposite him. "It wasn't... wasn't a good pregnancy. That opal necklace that put me in St Mungo's in my seventh year? It did something to my insides and no one knew until... And you were never in England long enough... And then I was on bed rest. We both almost... I know how you were after Fred. If we'd not survived it? I couldn't do that to you."

"Five _years_ ," Percy whispered, sounding a little accusatory.

"I know. It was stupid not to find you afterward." Katie cradled her head in her hand and rested her elbow on her knee. "I'm not expecting anything from you. I just wanted to see you. Me. I wanted to see you for myself. Not for her."

"You should have owled."

"I was scared." Katie looked down at the floor and absently scratched at a bit of crayon wax on the wood. "It was one time and I was nineteen. You were grieving and I just wanted to make that go away for a bit because, despite what everyone used to say about what a pompous twit Percy Weasley was, I was fond of you. And then... Eleanor was the result." Katie waved her hand helplessly. "She's the only one I'll ever have."

Before Percy could answer all of this, there was a knock on the door that startled both of them. Katie let out a quiet oath and something about how they were supposed to have more time. It all sort of happened as though his head was under water. She moved to the door and he watched it open, still breathing in and out of his paper bag. There was an older woman on the other side. She said something about an emergency with her grandkids and then there was this little girl in the room and the older woman had left. Katie helped her daughter out of her jacket.

Red curls.

Wearing small specs.

Their eyes met. 

She looked like Ginny had when she was a child.

And Percy panicked, pulled out his wand and disapparated from the room with a loud pop.

*^*^*

"What the hell is wrong with you, Percy?" Bill asked, managing to corner his brother in the kitchen at the Burrow.

It had been a week and some change since Percy's brief and terrifying visit with Katie. He'd not spoken a word about it to anyone because speaking it aloud would make it real and making it real would be almost catastrophic at this point. Slowly moving a spoon around in a pot of stew that didn't need to be stirred, Percy glanced at his eldest brother and felt some of the old Percy come back. Bill didn't need to know his business. Bill didn't need to know any of this. Bill had been the messenger and that was that. Who was he to question anything Percy had done over the last number of days.

"I don't know what you're talking about," he said lightly, reaching for the salt shaker.

"Like hell you do," Bill said, leaning on the counter and taking the salt from Percy. "Mum said you're leaving again."

Percy frowned. He hadn't meant to blurt it out at dinner the other day, but his mind had been miles away and when Molly had started to talk about houses that were available in the area, the first thing out of his mouth was about an impending trip to Brazil. The looks on both his parents' faces had been hard to deal with. He could tell that they wanted to protest but were holding back the words in favour of not alienating him. And the words that he wanted to really say were hiding in the back of his mouth.

"I do have a job, Bill," Percy said stiffly, not wanting to talk about it.

Bill opened his mouth to respond to that but was silenced by someone at the threshold to the kitchen. Angelina Johnson, soon to be Weasley, poked her head into the room and looked around. Percy had thought it strange that George had developed a bond with Fred's former girlfriend. But then, Percy never actually knew if Fred and Angelina had been an item. Not for certain. He was already working at the Ministry by then and all he'd known was that she'd attended the Yule Ball with Fred. Maybe it had only been that. In any case, George seemed happy and Percy couldn't begrudge him for finding his way out of the dark tunnel he'd been in. She gave the pair of them a smile, her eyes settling on Percy.

"There's someone at the door for you," she said nodding at him.

"Who?" He asked, hearing Bill echo the same question.

"Katie Bell, actually." There was an intelligent sort of look in Angelina's eyes and Percy gulped. His soon to be sister-in-law knew something. Maybe she'd known something for some time. "I _really_ think you ought to talk to her."

Percy nodded and handed the spoon to Bill, leaving the kitchen. As he passed by Angelina, she caught his arm and held him in place. For a moment, the two of them stood there. Her brown eyes met his blue and although she was being polite and had a smile on for appearances, Percy could see something else there. It made him feel like he was staring at a lioness ready to step between her young and whatever was endangering it. She knew. She had to know. She had to know more than anyone. And Percy couldn't help but wonder who else knew. Did George know? Did the whole family know and they were just waiting for the other shoe to drop? He took a tiny step backwards and Angelina released his arm.

"Tread lightly," she said under her breath and then went further into the kitchen offering her help to Bill with getting supper ready for the table.

It took a moment for Percy to gather his wits and he left the other two with the dinner plates, briskly making his way to the front door. Everyone was chattering. Ginny and Fleur were comparing their stomachs and Ron was besting Hermione at a game of wizard's chess. He had a stupidly triumphant look on his face since it was the only thing he _could_ best Hermione at. Harry's god-son Teddy was rolling a Quaffle between him and Victoire; it bounced slightly as he pushed it. George had an obnoxious-looking hat on his head, pouring cups of Christmas cheer and passing them out to those who were nearest to him. The noise was only a few steps down from deafening and Percy hoped that this would mean they wouldn't notice a quiet conversation outside.

But if wishes were fishes... 

He shoved his feet into boots that were too big for him. Ron's probably. It was hard to tell with the enormous pile on the floor. Percy wasn't even sure if they were matching. He tugged open the door, fully ready to go outside and keep the conversation between himself and Katie. Except that wasn't going to be the case. Katie stood on the front step, the little girl that he'd only seen for a small moment in her arms. The two of them looked a little cold, but not to the point where either of them were shivering. Warming charms on clothing were a wonderful thing. She gave Percy a tight sort of smile and puffed out her cheeks which were pinked from the chilly air.

Behind him the room grew silent.

Crap. Crap. Crap. Crap. Percy felt his heart rate jump up and he glanced over his shoulder to see what felt like a million pairs of eyes staring that the three of them. He looked back at Katie, his shoulders dropping.

"She needs to use the loo," Katie said quietly.

Percy hesitated and opened his mouth, only to hear his mother's voice before he could even speak.

"Oh heaven's sake, Percy, let the poor child in," Molly said, walking up behind him and fairly pushing him out of the way. She gave Katie a warm look and the two were allowed into the house.

Katie put Eleanor on the floor and the little girl hid shyly against her mother's leg, squirming from one foot to the other, her small glasses fogging up in the warm room. She wiped at them with mittened hands and that didn't seem to do anything but smudge them up. Katie got to work undoing the little jacket and unwinding the thick scarf from around the little girl's neck. The last thing to come off was the thick woolen cap and a tumble of fine red hair bounced around Eleanor's face. When that happened a collective inhalation rose up from the room and Percy refused to meet any of the eyes that were now focused on him, staring intently at a knot in the wooden door.

"Oh," Molly said softly. "Oh my. Percy?"

It was everything that Percy didn't want to have happen. He didn't want everyone to find out this way. He wanted to get used to the idea of this little girl before approaching his parents. He wanted to get to _know_ her before she was introduced to everyone else. The blood seemed to drain from his face. He could literally feel it moving down from his forehead to his cheeks and down his neck and maybe pooling around his belly which seemed to heave a little. This was far too exposed and too much all at once. It wasn't in the right steps and he barely keeping himself upright.

"Hello!" A little voice spoke up from behind Molly's legs. 

The merry little sound seemed to cut through everything like a hot knife through butter. Percy looked down to see Victoire grinning at Eleanor. Teddy was holding her hand. Or she was gripping onto his and dragging him about. The little boy didn't look like he minded too much. They were peeking around Molly to have a better look at the new arrivals. Victoire especially, who looked first from Percy to Eleanor and then back to Percy. She tilted her head and then returned her attention to the new little girl.

"You has glasses like Uncle Percy," she said with a nod.

Eleanor took a step back and tugged at Katie's sleeve insistently, cupping her hand to whisper in her mother's ear. Katie gave Victoire an apologetic look and then looked at Molly. "A bit shy, but she really does need to use the loo."

Before anyone could do anything and before anyone could say Victoire had seized Eleanor's hand with a declaration that _she_ knew where it was and instructed the older girl to come with her. Teddy took that moment to squirm out of Victoire's grasp and went back to his Quaffle. Everyone stared at Percy and then at Katie. He didn't make any excuses or explanations, instead he gestured stiffly to the door so they could go outside and once the door was closed behind him, Percy leaned against it and covered his face with his hands.

"Ohgodohgodohgod...."

"We only came to talk." Katie rubbed the back of her neck. "I'm so sorry you found out this way. I really am. I had it all planned out... And this stupid fantasy of how it was going to go with you being overjoyed and Eleanor knowing who her daddy was and this all turning out perfect in the end. I never wanted..." She sniffed and looked down a the ground. "It went all wrong. I'm so sorry."

"What's her favourite colour?" he asked quietly and suddenly, peering at Katie over the tips of his fingers.

"What?"

"Her favourite colour. What is it?"

"Purple. She says it's a fancy colour." Katie gave him a strange look.

"And her favourite animal?"

"An owl."

It went like that for a few moments. Percy asking easy to answer questions about his daughter. Favourite food, story, song. Some of them Katie could answer. Some of them were answered with a 'it changes often'. He asked about the glasses and how bad her eyesight was. He asked about Christmas and birthdays and if she'd ever asked about her dad. They spoke quietly in the cold and inside he could hear Bill's daughter leading Eleanor around the house, pointing out important things like the family clock and where she saw a mouse once and her favourite stair to jump on.

Every so often he saw Katie wipe a tear from her cheek.

Reaching out across the space, Percy cupped his hand to her upper arm and then slid it down until his fingers circled her wrist and he tugged her closer to him, putting his arms around her just as Katie fell apart. This time it was him doing the holding and her doing the crying. She repeated her apologies and they stood like that for a long time until she managed to get herself under control. Looking up with red-rimmed eyes, Katie bit her lip. Five years was a long time and he didn't know what could be pieced together now. He hoped there could be something.

"Where do we go from here?" she asked.

Percy clunked his head back against the door and looked up at the decorations that had been attached to the eaves. "I don't imagine that we can go anywhere but inside." His eyes shifted back to her face. "There are going to be a _lot_ of questions."

"I know." She reached for the doorknob, but he stilled her hand before she could touch it.

"Me first. With a question, I mean."

Katie wet her lip and smoothed down her hair in an effort to look presentable. "Alright."

"Would you like to have dinner sometime this week?" Percy raised his eyebrows and pushed his glasses up with one finger against the bridge of them. "I know it's a little out of sequence..."

A smile appeared and it lit up her face. "Yeah. Actually I would."

He let go of her hand. "Shall we go face the music?"

"Think we could let her win them over more before we do?"

"We could," he answered with a glance over his shoulder. "But that wouldn't be very brave of us and it's probably a good idea to set a positive example for all the children who are in there. Including some of my brothers."

He let go of her wrist so she could grab the doorknob and moved to the side as the warm air inside the house came pouring out once the door had opened. Everyone looked at him and Katie with questions in their eyes and on their lips. Eleanor got up from her spot on the floor and came over to them, putting her arms around Katie's legs. For a very brief moment, Percy wanted to pull out his wand and disapparate the three of them somewhere else and avoid answering questions of a personal nature. For a very brief moment he wanted to set his jaw and refuse outright because it was literally none of their business. Often he felt the old Percy want to take control of the situation. 

But this wasn't a situation the old Percy had any right to be a part of.

Reaching between them, Percy found Katie's hand and he took a deep breath.

"Alright. Who's first?"

*^*^*


End file.
